BASF to develop electronic materials for integrated circuits with IBM.

BASF announced recently that it has entered into an agreement with IBM to jointly develop electronic materials required in the production process of the most advanced integrated circuits (ICs). Under the agreement, BASF and IBM will develop chemical solutions for the IC manufacturing process of new high-performance, energy-efficient chips based on 32-nanometer (nm) technology. The technology as well as its related chemicals and materials are expected to be commercialized by major companies in the semiconductor industry in North America, Asia and Europe as early as 2010.

Today's latest state of the art chip technology (45 nm) will be introduced at the end of 2007.

The research for smaller minimum feature sizes 32 nm technology will be carried out jointly at IBM's facilities in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., U.S.A. and BASF's headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany.